Story+2005-08-07+Milwaukee,+WI

´´Good evening....hello, Milwaukee....nice to see you, thanks for coming out.....the only request is if I can get as much quiet as I can get tonight, I´ll be able to give you my best so thanks and enjoy yourselves....uh....this is a soldier´s song.....´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´Shut Out The Light´´**

´´Thank you....thanks a lot....alright, I wrote a lot of songs about, uh, oh, good evening again (chuckles)....I wrote a lot of songs about parents and children and, uh, so I go back to the beginning on that (chuckles)....´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´My Father´s House´´**

´´Yeah...well, now the shoe is on the other foot unfortunately....and wherever my father is, he´s rolling in his grave, laughing his ass off (chuckles) ´Hah! So you thought it was so easy, Mr. Big Shot!´ (laughs) ain´t it true!....yes, we had the, uh, first teenage party the other night - I´m not hated yet, I´m just sort of mildly loathed right now (chuckles) I´ve settled for loathing, hoping I won´t get to the hatred-part....(chuckles) oh boy....alright, so, uh, first teenage party, it wasn´t bad, you know, uh....the girls showed up first time....they showed (chuckles) wasn´t a lot of communication going on but they were there (chuckles) yup, and, uh....you know, the boys were playing it pretty cool, I had to, of course I had to get out of there, you can´t stand around and watch, you know, it´s not a zoo (chuckles) so I hid behind a bush (chuckles) yeah, yeah, it´s pathetic (chuckles) alright, ´Long Time Comin´.... (....) And I hope I ain´t gonna fuck it up this time....´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´Long Time Comin´´´ (following ´´My Father´s House´´)**

´´Thanks....yeah, I, uh, changed those last lines to ´I hope I´m not gonna fuck it up this time´ ....I sang it a bunch of times and thought ´Well, maybe I´m getting a little cocky there, I better slow down till I see how the whole thing goes´ (chuckles) alright, I´ve been trying to do something, pull something out of the box every night so if folks have been (crowd cheers) I can´t guarantee I´ll get through ´em without any mistakes but, uh, so, you know, all of the mistakes are intentional so that´s how it goes, here we go, oh, F-harp, F-harp, boys, F-harmonica, got one of those around?....thank you, Fitz....Mr.Fitz, yeah....(starts the piano intro) that´s the only part I know, it´s almost over...´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´Frankie´´ (following ´´Long Time Comin´´´)**

´´Yeah, I better play a happy one, I don´t anybody calling it in out there (chuckles)(?) (chuckles) yeah, little, uh....let me see, let me sing one of these happy bastards (chuckles) yeah, I write those too, folks, that´s right, the man does it all, that´s right....according to myself anyway (chuckles) one, two, give me a little more voice, alright, so, uh, in the mid-´70s I used to be in the bars three, four, five nights a week and uh....I didn´t have anything else to do (chuckles) so I always picture this song, this is kind of one of those, man, I had this white, I think it was a C-10, white C-10 pick-up and, uh, it was completely trashed and rusted out at the back but, uh, uh....I went all over in that thing and so I always be heading to a bar in this thing and, you know, to somebody down there and I had this old cassette, you know, remember cassettes? (crowd responds in affirmative) yeah, I had one of those, that´s right, I had one, I actually had one, I did and uh (chuckles) and, uh (chuckles) it was ´The Best of the Raspberries,´ that´s what it was....(?) they´re from the Midwest (?) they´re a group that got no respect, all the power pop, everybody looking back, going on about all the great bands forget the Raspberries, the Raspberries had all those great hits and they made this one record, ´Overnight Sensation,´ it´s one of the best little pop symphonies you´ll ever hear, go out and download to pay for it (chuckles) ´The Overnight Sensation´ by the Raspberries, when you go home, if you haven´t heard it, you won´t be disappointed, alright, so, I´ll dedicate this to them tonight, alright (chuckles)....´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´All That Heaven Will Allow´´**

´´Alright, alright, back, uh, somebody requested this one here tonight....´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´Point Blank´´**

´´Thank you, thanks....yeah, I....I was raised Catholic in a little neighbourhood, uh, we had, uh, kind of a strange situation going ´cause it was like this little L-shaped block and I lived here with my grandmom and my, my, my folks and, uh, then there was a little field and there was the nuns´ convent and the priests´ rectory and the Catholic church right on the corner and across the street from the Catholic church was my cousins´ house with my two little cousins in it, then next door to them was my aunt´s and my uncle´s with my three cousins in it and then two houses down was my great-grandmother´s house and then right across the street from them - that was just my father´s side of the family (chuckles) and they were, uh, that was the Irish and across the street was the Italians and, uh, there was my aunt and uncle and, and a cousin, my mom´s sister, so we kind of had the neighbourhood sewn up but it was, it was a bit of an unusual thing, I never saw the Italian side cross the street to the Irish side and the Irish never crossed the street to the Italian side in all the years that I lived there ....it wasn´t like they were argueing, it just didn´t happen (chuckles) it was very, very, very strange, you know, and, uh, and then of course the church right in the middle, by the time I was ten years old, I´d seen more guys carted away in the back of a black Cadillac than you can imagine (chuckles) it was like, I seen every funeral that, every funeral and every wedding, I had a bag of rice that I´d stashed, it was about this big, from picking up the rice after all the weddings, you know (chuckles) and, uh, so it was, the Catholic church was always there, you know, it was always there and, uh, I kind of couldn´t get away from it though I tried very hard and, uh, uh, it was just something and I looked back and I, I hated it for about - let me see - 55 years so....I figured in the past six months I´ve kind of made my peace (chuckles) but uh....uh, it was sort of an upbringing that was filled with, it was actually filled with an enormous amount of poetry and, and mystery and terror and, but also these incredible, beautiful images of transcendence and, uh, and belief and it, it gets in your bones, you know, when, when you have it from when you´re a little kid, just like anything else, it gets in your bones and it´s in there when they bury you so, uh, over the course of writing about parents and children, I said well, you know....let me see, what it would´ve been like to someone if Jesus was their son, you know? What would that have been like....given that, you know, kids choose their own destiny and, and, uh, you´re along for the ride, the whole ride so I wrote this, uh, with that thought in mind, thought of my own children, I guess, this is ´Jesus Was an Only Son´.... (....) //At His mother´s feet....//the first thing you´re certain of when you have your kids is that there´s something that appears in the, uh, in your gut that says there´s nothing you wouldn´t do of to keep them safe....and that that feeling is a life sentence and that they´re gonna have to make their way in the world and there´s nothing you can do about it.... (....) //Will pierce your dreams this night....//now I always figured that the choices we make are given their weight and their meaning by the things that we give up....you choose something and you let another part of life go....and I always figured Jesus had to be thinking about what He was gonna lose....how that there was really beautiful in Galilee this time of year and how there was this great little bar on the corner that He used to visit when He passed through.... and they probably needed somebody to manage the place that knew what they were doing.... Mary Magdalene could tend bar and they could have a bunch of kids and get to watch the air fill their lungs at night when they´re sleeping, see the sun on their faces....and, uh, see the next day....and see the next day....and see the next day....and see the next day.... ´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´Jesus Was An Only Son´´**

´´Thanks....thanks a lot....this is a, uh, like I was saying (?)....I was saying, uh (?)....I was, uh, you know, we have this part of us that´s....that seed that we build things with, then we have the other thing....that part of yourself that´s the seed of your own destruction, I guess, and everybody wrestles with those things and I guess in theory that was, that was what happened when, uh....when we ended up so far east of Eden, I think, but I, I´ve been thinking about this the past few nights and telling the folks, well....I think the whole thing was a set-up, myself....alright, there´s this garden and, ok, you can do whatever you want in it but you can´t touch the appletree....(?)(chuckles) hey, you know, how many times can you walk around the garden? (chuckles) how, how, you know, until you get back to the appletree (chuckles) and uh....needless to say, it has made life both interesting and dangerous (chuckles) this is ´The Hitter´....´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´The Hitter´´**

´´Thank you....thanks a lot....I lived in, lived in California for a few years and, uh....and wrote a series of songs that were kind of set in the Central Valley, I used to ride through the Central Valley to visit my folks when they moved out west and I wrote a series of songs set there and along the border, this is a song that´s kind of part or sequel to that group of songs and, uh....every year there´s hundreds of people that die trying to get into the United States, they die in the rivers, of dehydration in the deserts and in the back of vans all just trying to get across the southern border to do the toughest and the dirtiest jobs that we have and uh.... I´ve been saying this every night but what we really need, instead of the vigilantes along the border, I think, is a humane immigration policy so (crowd cheers) have so, so many people dying for so little so this is a song called ´Matamoros Banks,´ it´s set from the point of view, it starts, written backwards from the point of view of the body at the bottom of the river to the man walking across the desert till he reaches the banks of the Rio Grande, across from Brownsville, Texas....´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´Matamoros Banks´´**

´´Alright, got a request for this one....´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´Open All Night´´**

´´Alright, I had, uh, I met some folks this morning that asked me for this one so....uh, they said they were from Chicago (quite a few people cheer) that´s, uh, (?) Chicago must be close, whenever two cities are close and you say something like that, a bunch of people cheer and a lot of people boo, yeah, yeah....I´m not gonna, I´m not gonna suss all this out for you now, alright (chuckles) at any rate, uh (chuckles) I hope this will please all factions, alright (chuckles)....´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´Growin´ Up´´**

´´Thanks a lot....thank you....I wanna thank everybody for coming out to the show....thanks for coming down, you´ve been a lovely and fabulous audience and I appreciate it, I also wanna give a shout-out to the Second Harvest Foodbank of Wisconsin....our friends here in the house....they´re here, they obtain food and other related products and they distribute ´em to a bunch of different programs and provide these programs for the folks that are out there struggling, they, uh, they´re just good folks out on the frontlines doing God´s work, if you can on your way out, please check out the Second, Second Harvest of Wisconsin there.... they deserve your support and, uh, once again, thanks and, uh, this one´s for you also....´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´The Promised Land´´**

´´[apparently somebody hands Bruce something] This is a thoughtful gift (?) this is a very thoughtful gift....one more for Milwaukee....´´
 * 07.08.05 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´´Dream Baby Dream´´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//